Fire destroys Mt. Pleasant retreat center's maintenance building but no lodging affected, no one hurt

While no one was hurt, the loss of the Laurelville Retreat Center’s maintenance building in a large fire early Saturday morning took out the resort’s main base of operations, according to its director.

Firefighters from multiple companies responded to Laurelville Retreat Center along Mennonite Camp Road in Mt. Pleasant for a report of a structure fire just before 1 a.m. on Saturday.

Laurelville is a Christian camp retreat situated on about 600 acres in Mt. Pleasant. It has eight full-time employees and dozens of seasonal workers.

It was originally founded as the Laurelville Mennonite Church Center in 1943. It rents hotel-style rooms, cabins, cottages and meeting space, running summer camps and other programming.

The sizable fire destroyed its maintenance building, according to Executive Director Jeanette Lahm.

“It’s a total loss,” Lahm said. “We lost about three vehicles for sure, and we also had three golf carts in there.”

Much of the camp’s operations were run out of the maintenance building, Lahm said. She is thankful that no one was hurt.

“No other buildings were in danger, and it was the middle of the night, so no employees were, either,” she said.

Fire crews were called back to the building around 9:30 a.m.

“It did reignite, but they were able to put it out very quickly,” Lahm said. “We were told it could continue to smolder for a week.”

Officials from the lead fire company, Kecksburg VFD, could not be immediately reached for details.